I would but would not recommend this book to a friend. This book talks about very detailed graphic things that some people can't imagine. It tells a sad but true story of Chris Garber and his life of how for many years himself and his young son were homeless. Now a millionaire for stockbroking, it tells his story. I had seen the movie the "The Pursuit of Happyness" with will smith and the story was so interesting I had decided to read the book my self to make it (seem) more real to me. Q5P4AHS/Cheyanne F.

I was uneasy going into this book. The movie made Gardner to be an American hero, moving up from homelessness into riches. The full story as Gardner tells it is much more grim. I won’t itemize Gardner’s list of crimes, but it’s enough to say, I think, that the movie omits or glosses over most of the shadier events of his life. And, no, as you might expect, even with a writer helping him, Gardner is not good at setting down the story of his life. I was left with the feeling that Gardner is just a man who wanted to become rich and did so. His greatest accomplishment was to do this without tossing aside his kids when it would have been easy to do so. ( )

Another movie book. I seem to have been reading a lot of these lately. This is one of my 'work books', something I read on my breaks. It's an autobiography by Chris Gardner, a rags-to-riches man if there ever was one. His book is as self-made as his career and it's sort of a feel-good story so I am inclined to give it a decent rating. Good biography. ( )

Wikipedia in English (1)

The astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street

At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station.

Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.

More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.

"At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station." "Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)